


12 Years

by GibbsandDiNozzosProbie



Category: NCIS
Genre: AU with some cannon, Drama & Romance, Eventual Tiva, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-11 21:53:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15981272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GibbsandDiNozzosProbie/pseuds/GibbsandDiNozzosProbie
Summary: What if the end of season 13 had been different? This time Mossad knew what was coming and got Ziva and Tali out of the farmhouse, but still reported their deaths as they both went into hiding. 11 years later they end up coming back together again and Tony finds out the truth about Tali, at first he's angry with Ziva for keeping his daughter away from him. With being a single father already to Lizzie from his marriage to Megan, they eventually find their way back together again leading them to having another moment on the very tarmac they said "Goodbye" on 12 years later.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this story came from watching Family First for the first time in a long time and the inspiration came from Tony's line about Mossad knowing what goes on all the time and would have known about Kort coming after Ziva. This story will be mostly AU, but there will still be some cannon to things that have happened in the following seasons.

12 Years

It had been twelve years since that last fateful moment on the very same tarmac and twelve years since Tony had made that most difficult 180 of his life, but now all the resentment was passed that he had originally felt when he found out the truth about Tali, and after months of the two of them just chatting on the phone or sharing Emails despite him also spending time with his daughter. As he and his other daughter Elizabeth or Lizzie as she preferred to be called had made the journey to Israel, he also somehow realised that ultimately not only was the time right for he and Ziva after all these years, but he also felt that the time was right for him to move on and that his first wife Megan was giving him her blessing to do just that and be with the woman that he had originally fallen in love with all those years ago. 

 

It had been about four months after Ziva had left when Tony had taken some leave and had had a bit of space to do some revaluation of his life, going to Paris to say goodbye to his former life with Ziva before he then gone and caught up with some of the British side of his family in the UK, it was while he was there that he was introduced to Megan and it had been love at first sight for the two of them. They had then very rapidly become a couple and even Tony found himself somewhat astonished when he came to propose to her, but he knew very much that it was so certainly right for him to do so. A short while after that marriage they found out that Megan was pregnant with Lizzie.

 

Of course in the end their expectations about the two of them spending the rest of their lives together soon came toppling down not long after Lizzie had started school, as they decided to increase their family, although Tony did keep joking with Megan that it was just down to her having empty nest syndrome with Lizzie now being at school. But then just a couple of months into them trying again for a baby Megan found a lump in her breast, and despite making a truly valiant fight against the disease she sadly lost her battle not long after Lizzie had celebrated her 6th birthday, leaving Tony alone to bring up their daughter.

 

During that time everybody in the team was of course behind him and supported him every step of the way, especially whenever he had to take leave and be there for Lizzie when Megan had been just too sick to be able to take care of her. Just as he was drawing near to the end of his leave following Megan's sad passing, he had been considering giving up the badge because of how the job could be and he didn't wish to leave Lizzie as an orphan, but Megan's twin sister Phillipa or Pippa to everyone else had just moved to DC with her husband Brian and she had told Tony that she would be happy to be there for Lizzie if he did want to remain in his job, so in the end he did decide that he would remain there as an agent, Plus everyone on the team also were behind him and when big complicated cases came up meaning that none of them were getting home, they did still somehow made sure that he got home to see Lizzie, even if it was just for a five minute call in. 

 

All along Megan had known about Ziva and as she neared the end of he life she had told him that if there was any chance of the two of them meeting up and they were able to start a relationship again, then he would always have her blessing, but if the two of them didn't then he wasn't to live his life alone and he was to let himself fall in love again, because she didn't want him to live his life alone and she had a sense that Ziva would most probably be a wonderful parent to their daughter and she likewise knew that if he did meet another woman then she knew that he would always make sure that they were suitable enough for their daughter as well.

 

Over the years though he never did seem to find anyone, although in many respects it had seemed to be a mixture of being just as hurt if not more than he had been when he and Megan had found each other and that in a sense had stopped him, alongside being busy with Lizzie and likewise with work, principally in the last few years or so. The reason for it being was because Gibbs had also finally retired, although in many ways he had been forced into it because of the damage his knee had sustained over the years and of course it was also the one that he had been shot in all those years ago by Luke Harris and in the last year or so he had had to have another knee replacement done. With his retirement though Tony had taken over as team lead, not only that they were also now a five member team. Nick Torres had joined them not long after they had found out about Megan being ill, so that the team was covered when Tony had to have the time out. 

Then they had been joined a couple of years ago by Callie Davis, originally she had joined them just to cover for while Bishop was away on maternity leave following her second successful marriage. Tony and Callie had had a bit of a past themselves having been at FLETC together, she had moved to San Diego after that before then mostly remaining as an agent afloat, until she had met her own husband and had a family, as her twin boys were just going to be starting at high school she and her husband both wished to be more settled, so she had put in the transfer to the Navy Yard and the initial proposal was going to be for her to head her own team when Bishop's maternity leave had concluded, but then the new director Paula Richards had decided not to go forwards with the team that she was expected to be heading up and in the end after Callie and Tony had had a bit of a heart to heart they had put the plan to the director about her remaining with the team and the director had gone with it. 

In many ways the rapport that he and Callie had was more of friends who cared for each other and Tony always believed that the way they were together now had been an extension to the way they were in FLETC, because he invariably seemed to sense when she was unsettled about something and he would take her to one side to find out if she was ok or not, then she would be able to read him so easily that as soon as he began to shut down whenever anything was plaguing him meaning he would start to become snappy with everybody, she would move him aside to someplace more private and would not only call him on whatever it was, but she would then make him talk about whatever was going on. 

His nickname for her was also 'pocket rocket' because of her being quite short in stature, but despite appearances and her looking like she wouldn't hurt a fly, if she needed to she could take down a man double her height and size, and the rocket came from the way that if a suspect ran she was just like a rocket as she raced after them with so much agility, she looked just like a rocket shooting off. 

She was also really wonderful with Lizzie and there were occasions when he had wished that she had been around at the time when Lizzie had been baptised, because they had had Pippa as one of her godmothers, but the other godmother had never put in an appearance or did a check in to find out how her goddaughter was doing, whereas Callie was there for her and it made him truly happy that she was, especially if Lizzie wanted to talk about personal women matters, then she would either go to Callie or Pippa about it, but at times when she wanted to talk about her mom and felt that perhaps she couldn't talk to him or Pippa about it because she was afraid that it might upset them, then she would turn to Callie instead. Plus he and James Callie's husband were the best of friends as well, so the two families would end up spending time together, as well as he and James ending up going out together for boys nights out, which sometimes McGee would also accompany them as well, especially with them all being married family men.

 

Over the years Tony's relationship with Gibbs had evolved, there was a point after Ziva had left that things between them became a bit strained and at the time Tony had come remarkably close to giving up the badge then completely, which had also been why he had taken that leave when he had met Megan to make that determination about whether to remain or go.

It was just before they found out about Megan being ill when things seemed to turn around and they became closer again, and Gibbs in some ways ended up being his real rock during the time that she was so very ill. The only other time in which their relationship became strained again was just before Gibbs retired because of the way he was being with Abby as they had ended up having a serious argument about something, which no-one else had found out what it was about and to this day it had remained that way. In the end she had become close friends with Clayton Reeves who came from the UK and worked at MI6, he had helped them out with a case and had then ended up remaining with them as a liaison officer. Tony had never found out the truth about how Gibbs had really felt about the relationship between Clayton and Abby until the two of them had a heart to heart following Abby and Clayton being shot while on a night out, he had ended up shielding Abby so she ended up surviving her injuries while sadly Clayton was killed outright, she then ended up escorting Clayton's body back to the UK and decided to remain there. After that the two men had their heart to heart and once again made things up, and since then had remained close and had become even closer when Megan was diagnosed and through the whole time of her illness and especially after she sadly passed away. Since Abby had left they had initially been joined by Kasie who at the time had been working with Ducky on his memoirs, but as the time got closer to the publication of them they found that there wasn't so much time for her to be able to continue in the job, so they had now got Louisa Smith as their forensic scientist. Ducky had also retired at the same time as his memoirs came out for Jimmy to take over as the new ME and in the past few months he had got Melissa Jarrett as his assistant. So all in all life seemed to be going swimmingly along, but as it does and with Lizzie about to go to a new school everything was about to change for them both.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is about Lizzie's first day at her new school & a new friend that she has made with Tony finding about Tali.

12 Years

 

It had been Lizzie's first day at her new school and of course that morning it had been quite emotional for both father and daughter, especially as his little girl was growing up rapidly and with everyday was looking more and more like her mom as she did get all the more older, except for the eyes as they were all his with both their shape and colour. 

Once he had got to work after seeing her off it was to discover that the team had been out on a case, but between McGee and Callie they had made certain that he hadn't got called about it because of recognising how significant that day was to him. Luckily that case also ended up becoming pretty much cut and shut with it being a murder/suicide when early that afternoon the body of their primary suspect turned up along with a note explaining that it was him who had murdered his wife and why he had done it. They were just ploughing through the paperwork when Callie told him to leave his and go home so he was there for when Lizzie got home. 

When Lizzie did get home she did seem to be happy, but Tony could immediately see that there was something wrong so as they hugged and as she then sat down with him he said "How was everything today, you seem a bit preoccupied?"

She then smiled and responded "They were really good except for one thing."

"And what was that?"

She sighs and asks "Before I tell you, can I ask you something?"

"And what is that?" 

She responds "I know that both you and mom had your own boyfriends and girlfriends before the two of you met, so is there a chance that a girlfriend of yours had a baby and you didn't know or something?"

He replies seriously "How do you mean?"

She chews on her lip and continues "It's just that I had a problem with Simon again."

A little bit of anger builds up as he says "So he's broken his word already?"

"He has, but don't be mad dad as I don't think with what took place he will be bothering me again. This girl saw what was going on and came to my rescue, she's in the year above me and he started to pick on her as well, she got in his face so he tried to hit her and let's just say she kneed him somewhere painful and he was speaking funny for the rest of the afternoon." 

They then both laugh as he says "Ouch. Well let's just hope that it works, so I'm presuming that the rest of this has got something to do with this girl then?"

She answers "Yes, her name is Tali." As soon as he hears the name he zones out slightly only half hearing what she says because of the way the alarm bells are going off in his head. "We only got to talk for a few minutes then, but she found me again in the next break, so we got a drink and then headed somewhere for a chat. When we introduced ourselves to one another properly we were both surprised with her also having Elizabeth in her name as well as Kelly and she was surprised that I had Tali in my name too, but to then top things off her surname is also DiNozzo dad or part of it is."

In his own shock he then says "What is the rest of the surname?" Even though he has a sneaky suspicion about what it may be he still takes a big gulp of air when she says "Her full surname is David-DiNozzo dad." 

Once he gets over his shock a tiny bit he takes her hand and says "A long while ago I worked with an agent and her name was Ziva David."

"And you were in love with her?"

He nods and then carries on "Thanks to one of Grandpa Gibbs rules that you should never date a co-worker we never acted on our feelings for one another, except for one time when the two of us were sent to Paris to go and pick up a witness for a case as well as be there for protection of her, and we slept together on the night before we had to go and pick her up from the embassy in Paris. There's a bit of a long story to the next bit and I won't bore you with it now, but with the initial events we had all resigned and weren't agents anymore so she went home back to Israel, then a terrorist got all of us in his sight, but Ziva was a bigger target for him because her father Eli had been the director of Mossad and this terrorist thought that after Eli had died she would inherit a lot of his files and things from him being the director of Mossad. Myself and Uncle Tim were eventually reinstated as agents, so was Ziva and I headed to Israel to try and find her because when some bad men working for the terrorist went after her, she got away but did get hurt and after going to the hospital she then disappeared. I did find her eventually and tried to persuade her to come back here to DC with me, but she wouldn't and instead we had a final night together before I came home alone. I plodded on for a while before I took a break from work and went to the UK."

"And that was when you met mom?” He sighs and says "It was. I did tell her all about Ziva and she knew how I felt about her, but ultimately it was your mom that helped me put that past away and I eventually let myself fall in love with her properly. Yes it had been love at first sight for the both of us, but because of what happened with Ziva I just felt that I couldn't actually let myself go even though I did truly love her."

She then asks "So if me and Tali are sisters then why didn't Ziva tell you about her?" 

He responds "I really don't know Lizzie, the only way we'd find out is to talk to her and I can only do that if Tali tells her about you and Ziva comes to us."

She then pulls her phone from her pocket and says "Would you like to see her dad?"

"How?" 

She says with a grin "Well after talking we sort of said that if it was possible that we were sisters or not then we would be best friends anyhow, so we sort of took a selfie of us. Before I show it you though I did tell Tali about Mom because she also spotted my necklace, so I showed her the inside of my locket, but she was also surprised about me wearing the star and not being Jewish, my necklace belonged to Ziva didn't it?" 

He replies "It did, as in the time before I had my break and met your mom I genuinely thought that she would come back to me, so I kept it so that when that day came I could give it back to her once again. Her original one was lost when she was a captive of a very bad man years ago and so I gave her the new one to replace it during the Christmas after we got her back to us again, even though she doesn’t celebrate Christmas, it somehow felt right at the time. I still kept it as I really couldn't bear to get rid of it and your mom did know about it. Not long after you were born and we were talking about things she made the suggestion that we give it to you, and that it didn't matter what religion or anything else we were, as she even said to me one day that seeing it around your neck made her grateful to Ziva for giving us a chance to be together."

After that she then picks her phone up and fiddles with it before she then hands it over to him for him to look at the picture of the two girls together. As he stares at it and takes a gulp he finds various emotions rushing through him because in the first instant he can see that Tali is both he and Ziva's daughter, because she looks so like Lizzie although her hair is just slightly darker than Lizzie's and with the curls is most assuredly all Ziva, but just like Lizzie she had also inherited his eyes. So he could instantly feel the love growing for a daughter that he had never met and had missed out on so much of her growing up and now she was practically a woman, and because of that he could also feel some anger building up because of the way that Ziva had kept his daughter away from him. Then there was also that bit of pride inside him that the two girls had just randomly come together and had met each other and had already become so close to one another, and he also had a slight chuckle to himself as it entered his head that he could see it in the two of them already that they were going to have double trouble on their hands. The next question of course was where was Ziva living now, as it was clear that with the girls managing to meet at school she must be living back in DC and would she let him see his daughter and have a relationship with her?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we have the talk between Tali and Ziva about her meeting Lizzie, as well as some of Ziva's thoughts.

12 Years

Even though she had wished to go home as early as possible to find out how Tali's first day back at school had gone, events, of course went against her and she hadn't been able to slip away as she had planned. 

By the time she did get home after also popping into the stores to go and get the items she required so that she could cook Tali's favourite meal for her tea, when she did eventually get in she was somewhat surprised to find her sitting up the table where she would normally be sitting as she got on with her homework, but with it being the first day she hadn't supposed that they would get any homework, she again noticed how deep in thought she was, so she went and put the purchases down on the counter and then sat down next to her, kissing the top of her head as she did so.  
She then said "What is that you are doing, it cannot be homework, surely?" 

She responds "Hi Ima, no this is just something I'd like to do with what took place today."

"So what happened, you did not get into trouble did you?" 

Tali laughs and retorts "I didn't, well I hope that I won't. I know that you repeatedly said that one day I could meet Abba, but I think that today I might have become best friends with my sister."

"What?" 

She responds "There was this girl, and she was being picked on by this boy, so I went over to help her, the boy then turned on me instead and got in my face, he then went to strike me and let's just say I kneed him somewhere painful instead. Anyway, later on I met her on the next break so we went and had something to eat and drink together to get to know each other including us introducing ourselves to each other properly. I was really surprised when she said to me that her last name was DiNozzo and I said to her that it was my name too, we went through our other names to and her first name is Elizabeth like I have in mine, except she prefers to be called Lizzie instead and she also has Tali in her name. She then told me that her mom died when she was six from cancer and that her Abba had been the one to bring her up with help from her Auntie too because he's a federal agent. So is it possible that Lizzie's Abba is also mine?" 

Ziva sighs as she suspects that she knows the truth because this Lizzie is undoubtedly Tony's daughter too and she replies "I have a suspicion that you could be right, so what is all this about?" 

Tali bites her lip and replies "Well I would have definitely told you first and I know that if you and Abba did end up speaking that it would perhaps get tough for you both, but Ima I do want the chance of getting to know my Abba, especially if me and Lizzie are going to be great friends... so I sort of wanted to write him a note telling him about me and if she would do it, then I was going to ask Lizzie to pass it on for me." 

Ziva says "That will be ok for you to do it, so what else is there about Lizzie?"  
"She's really great Ima, she's also got a necklace like mine, but on the chain she also has a locket that has a picture of her Ima in it, as she showed it to me and she looked like a really nice lady." She then hesitates and adds "Would you also like to see her Ima?"

Ziva asks "How?"

She grins and replies "Well we sort said that even if we weren't actually sisters, then we would be sisters anyway so we sort of took a selfie together."

Ziva says "I would love to see it." 

Tali gets her phone out and fidgets with it before she then hands it over, as she sees the picture she draws in a big gulp of air as she realises that there is no uncertainty that the two of them are sisters because the two of them do look so alike, especially as both girls have inherited Tony's gorgeous green eyes. She also finds herself smiling as she comes to the realisation that the two girls were most probably going to become a force of nature and that they would most probably have double trouble with them both. At the same time, though it also bought back some memories as well as her regrets about her having not told Tony about his daughter, and she just prayed that Tony wouldn't be too mad with her over having not told him about Tali. The other point that started to go through her head was how tough things must have been for him with his wife or partner whichever Lizzie's mom had been to him, but also the sense in which history had somewhat repeated itself with him having been left bringing Lizzie up on his own. Although she was also beginning to feel a bit of pride well up inside her because he hadn't done the thing that he had constantly been scared of in becoming like his own father and from all appearances had been bringing up his daughter really well. 

Her thoughts then turned to everybody else as well as Tony himself because as Tali had said he was still an agent so did that mean he was still at NCIS and had Gibbs finally retired so he was now team leader or was he still SFA? How much had the team changed now were there now new members, was Ducky still there and had he retired, was Tim also still there and what about Jimmy and Abby as well as the director? 

As these thoughts occurred to her, the regrets then started to load up on her anew about the years that she had been away from them all and even if she hadn't learned that she was expecting Tali she wished that she had kept in contact after she had gone through everything after she had left, and part of her was now somewhat apprehensive about getting in contact with them all again.


End file.
